


Legal Guardians

by SosaLola



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: M/M, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 11:11:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8370007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SosaLola/pseuds/SosaLola
Summary: Xander becomes Dawn's legal guardian after Buffy's death in The Gift. This is set in S7 episode Him.





	

 

 

 

Xander put down his pencil and glared at Spike’s shaking leg. “Would you stop? I have to finish going through the science building plans before tomorrow.” 

“How can you be this calm?” Spike’s tense fingers lit up a cigarette. “Dawn is going out with that DJ ponce to God knows where and all you care about is your bloody job.”

“His name is RJ. They’re going to the Bronze. And my ‘bloody job’ is the reason there’s a roof over our heads.” Spike kind of resented that Xander was the provider of their little family. Xander used to assume it was some fragile male ego crap, but it turned out Spike hated his inability to help out. 

Stealing was out of the question - it took three fights for it to sink in Spike’s head, two of which were almost deal breakers until Dawn threatened to run away. Regular jobs needed an identification, which Spike didn’t have, so he reluctantly accepted his role as a stay at home dad.

“Yeah, well, someone wouldn’t be here scribbling if it weren’t for Spike killing off the nasty schwalbe demon.” 

Spike was turning this into a competition again. If Xander wanted to get some work done, he better let Spike have this one. Sometimes he felt he was the only adult around here. 

“Fine, Spike. You’re our big hulk protector. We’d be lost without you.” Xander couldn’t help but sound patronizing. He could tell Spike was more aggravated than satisfied. “Look, I know you’re worried about Dawn, but it’s just a harmless date. Dawn is a responsible girl. You gotta trust her.”

On cue, Dawn walked out of her room looking like she came out of a Britney Spears video. 

“Hold it right there, missy!” Xander’s wide eyes couldn’t get wider. “When did you shred your clothes? And is that a ring on your belly button and since when do you show your stomach?” 

Dawn did her perfected version of adolescent eye roll. “Willow okayed it.”

“Last I checked Willow was not your legal guardian, I am.”

“Me too.” Spike jumped to his feet and stood next to Xander, copying his stern stare if not the foot tapping. “Except without all that boring paperwork.”

“You’re not serious.” Dawn twisted her lips in disdain. “Buffy used to wear worse than that when she was my age.” 

“I’m calling Tara.” Spike pulled out the big guns.

“You wouldn’t,” Dawn gasped. She tried to snatch the cellphone out of his hands, but Xander stood between them. 

“Dawn, go and change now,” he ordered.

She shook her head, the mop of brown curls swung left and right. “You can’t make me.”

Xander slipped her purse off her shoulder. “Then I’m taking your phone.” He unzipped the purse and waved the phone in Dawn’s face. 

“Give it back!” Dawn jumped up and down trying to get her phone. Xander held it up over her head when he realized she was much taller than she used to be last year.

“It’s all right,” Spike said, snapping the phone in his hands shut. “Let her go.” 

“What?” Xander was caught off guard, and Dawn took advantage and seized her phone from his loosening grip. 

Spike placed a chaste kiss on her forehead. “Be back before ten. It’s a school night.”

She flashed him a grin. “Thanks, Spike.” She threw a daring glance Xander’s way before strutting out of the apartment. 

“What the hell did you just do?”

“Relax,” Spike said. “Tara and Willow are going to the Bronze to keep an eye on her. She doesn’t know.” 

“Oh.” Tara and Willow were their backup parents. Willow would have been the better choice to raise Dawn if she wasn’t still in school. Xander was the only Scooby with a steady income and a place of his own which made him the most qualified to take care of Dawn. 

Not that he was complaining. Dawn’s presence filled the void Anya’s death left in his life. The summer after they had defeated Glory was the hardest on Xander because not only did he lose Buffy, but he also lost Anya. Dark times dimmed more by Giles’ departure, and soon it was impossible to keep pretending that Buffy was alive, especially when they lost the house. One of them had to step up, and it was him.

Dawn had endured his mood swings for so long until she ran away to Spike’s crypt… one thing led to another… and now…

“So, we’re alone,” Spike said suggestively. “Why don’t we…” He nodded his head to the direction of their room.

“Spike, I need to finish…”

He pulled Xander towards him. “Work can wait. The birds would probably piss off our little girl and she’d come back home in a huff before her curfew.” 

“If we wanna move into a bigger apartment where Dawn being here won’t be a big issue, then you gotta let me work.”

“Don’t know why you insist we need a bigger place. This flat is big enough for the three of us.”

“Spike, our bedroom is a closet.”

“Vampire-friendly,” Spike reasoned and then leaned in to nibble on Xander’s earlobe. 

Xander gasped. “Fine. Five minutes.” 

“Ten.”

“Eight.”

“Twenty.”

“Spike, you’re supposed to go down.”

“Oh, I’ll go down.”  And went down on him Spike did. The sex lasted more than thirty minutes. Interrupted by an angry slam of the apartment’s front door.

“Dawn is back,” Spike whispered against Xander’s lips. “We should probably…”

“Hell no!” Xander crashed his lips against Spike’s and they went at it for another half an hour.

“Are you guys done?!” Dawn roared from outside. “I need to talk to you! My life is OVER!”

It turned out, their backup parents ‘stole’ RJ from Dawn and were fighting each other for his affections. Through the stream of rivers sliding down her cheeks, Dawn described in detail how Willow magic kidnapped RJ and how Tara teleported to another place, muttering something about turning RJ into a woman. 

Spike squeezed Xander’s shoulder. “You finish up your construction plans. The hellmouth is my job.” 

“Go get ‘em, babe.” Xander gave a mocking air kiss. 

Spike threw in his trademark smirk, slipping on his duster. He strode to the door with his duster fluttering behind him like some superhero, and now it was Xander’s turn to feel envious. 

 

**The End**


End file.
